Honoring the Ancestors

Ancestor veneration is a huge part of my regular practice and also something that I teach. i can recommend some resources. There's a book called "Weaving Memory" by Laura Patsouris that is a how to guide on getting started in ancestor work and then I have a ton of articles at my blog krasskova.weebly.com/blog.html that you might find helpful.

I maintain a big ancestor shrine, with a separate section for the military dead in my home. I talk to them and pray pretty much daily and give offerings as often as I can (time and conversation I give almost every day). I've found that it took awhile for the connection to click into place, for me to sort things out with my ancestors nad probably vice versa too, but with consistent persistence it really paid off.

Around Samhain, because I consider the period approaching the inter-calendary days of Yule to be the effective end of the liturgical year, I do a major, really major ancestor feast and that usually carries over into day of the dead celebrations too.

be well,
G

I'm still trying to figure out a good way to honour my ancestors. I certainly honour them at Samhain and during the Mysteries of Wesir, but I haven't got a regular practice yet. I think part of it is the lack of space. I don't have a place to use as a ancestor shrine, so I can't really tend to it. I still try to honour them whenever I find the time, though. I try to remember to raise a glass to them on birth/death days, particularly for ones I feel close to. That's about the extent of my practice, though.

I keep a picture of my granddad in my lararium. I pray to the gods of the underworld to watch over him and my other forebears. For holidays I will do more, but am not sure what just yet.

I have an altar with pictures of my grandparents I knew while living, my granddad's mother(I am *fairly* certain it's her when young), and some great and great-great relatives standing in front of the house my great-great grandfather built; I haven't added pictures of the other paternal great-grandparents because they were generally either sort-of or outright abusive, so I'm starting with who I have and addressing the unknown ancestors more generally for now. I know I should, and plan to, address helping/incorporating the great-grandparents eventually, but I think I need a stronger connection/better signal clarity with who is listening to me now before I feel capable of fixing problems. Will probably take a while.

As a Greek, I really haven't found a lot of research on a regular Hellenic ancestor practice. (Anestheria, hero cultus, calling up the dead for help/magic/etc, but that's really it. If anyone can point out any sources, yay and thank you!), but I refill my paternal grandmother's teacup with clean water every morning, do coffee on the weekends, and give them a meal whenever I cook(usually once or twice a month). I also, for the moment, celebrate and give them a food offering on the day after Noumenia, since I really do not internally understand the concept of/have not connected to the Agathos Daimon at this point in my practice. Perhaps that will be more significant to me if I ever have a household/family to take care of? (If anyone has personal experience with that I'd love to hear about that, too.)

In my daily practice I light candles to honour the ancestors of my blood, the land and of spirit.

I don't keep an altar to any of my blood ancestors as my family are quite distant and comfortable with being distant. As I've been quite distant from my grand parents in life I don't think they'd want me bothering them now they're dead. Although I do intend to go to my grandmother's grave around Samhain (she's the only grandparent buried near me) and pay my respects.

I work with the ancestors of my land in the sense of researching local history- finding out about the lake village on the marsh near the river Ribble, connecting with Castle Hill- a local sacred site and the generations of people who would have walked there. I also walk the old padways, bridleways and wagonways and find out about the people who lived in the old houses and farms and their ways of life. I've had visions of the land's ancestral past in meditation and journeying and often find the ancestors speak in my poetry. There's a couple of people I relate to directly but I feel more comfortable speaking with them out on the land or whilst journeying than involving them in altar work.

I am still really trying to hash out my ancestor practice, currently I have a small indoor alter set up that is for both the Gods and my ancestors, though once I get the alter set up outside I think that I'll slowly transition my worship of the Gods primarily to the outdoor alter and keep the indoor one for my ancestors. My incense burner is a beautifully hand forged copper mermaid (beautiful, but not at all a Disney sort of Mer,) that I foresee still burning offerings to the Gods with but she'll stay inside and switch gears along with the altar.

Anyway, I don't currently venerate any of my immediate blood ancestors, though at the moment I have my Opa's old pocket watch on the altar next to where I burn candles for the ancestors. I'm focused on honoring those ancestors lost to the embrace of the sea and though I know that I have blood ancestors that were sailors and whalers I don't currently honor any particular ancestors even within that category.

Whenever I make offerings at the indoor alter I start with lighting the ancestor candle and may also say a hymn to them. I've been known to share pipe smoke with the ancestors as well, though I am often sharing that with the spirits of the land first and foremost.